Kirby's Premonition
by Otaku Bard
Summary: No one dies without a close relative or friend having been warned by a premonition. Premonitions are like a shadow projected beforehand of what is going to happen, but the person who experiences them is rarely the one threatened by death..


**KIRBY'S PREMONITION**

I was about 12 years old. We lived in a dome-shaped home by the seaside in Dreamland on my home planet, Pop Star, where my father worked for the Customs. My mother had a brother, Nago, who lived not far away and where I sometimes spent Christmas or Easter with my cousins. I liked this uncle very much; he always brought me a souvenir from his travels, for he went far and wide as the captain's mate on the Halberd, a great Battleship which sailed the cosmos. My mother was also very fond of Nago; he was a little younger than her, and she was his godmother. He wrote to her almost as often as his wife and on the day I am speaking of we had received a letter from him saying that he had just reached Space Land, that he was in good health, and that the Halberd would be setting sail for the port of Cappy Town.

I remember these details very clearly because, as I just said, I have a very lively interest in anything to do with Nago - my animal friend.

We had dined alone, my mother and me; my father was out on coastguard duty. The weather was quite bad, with winds and pink rain mixed together. When it was time for me to go to bed, my mother said to me:

"At least don't forget uncle Nago in your prayers."

"There's no fear of that," I squeaked.

I rarely failed to say a prayer especially for him, so that he would remember to bring me a nice treat from the places of his travels.

I did as usual that evening, but without being able to explain why as I prayed I felt myself becoming sad, so sad that I ended up crying. Then my mother came to my bed and said:

"What's making you cry like that? Go to sleep quickly, you know it's late."

Whilst speaking to me like that, she pointed to a little dormer window, similar to a ship's porthole, which was set in the wall a little above my head, and through which one could see a square of dark sky where the clouds passed. I dried my tears and pretended to close my eyes, but when my mother had gone back to her knitting near the table, I opened them again and stayed musing at the darkness. The wind blew in great gusts [16bit integers] outside; but in the calmer intervals I could hear the patter of rain on the golden roof tiles. I could make out this noise all the better because our house had only one floor. Now, suddenly, it seemed to me that a drop of water had come through the attic floor and fallen onto the bed. And after that there was a second, then a third, then five, ten, twenty others, one after the other. IT went tap, tap, tap; in little slow regular sounds. I called for my mother.

"What! What is it now?" She said.

"I think it's raining on my bed."

"What an idea!"

She ran her had along the bed, took a lamp to look at the ceiling, and ascertained that there was not the slightest sign of dampness anywhere. The noise had stopped, also.

"You know I'll tell your father when he comes in if you go on playing the fool and dreaming of things that aren't there instead of sleeping." Said my mother.

I was afraid of my father who although thoroughly good, was a rough-mannered man, and I promised to be good as gold. However, my mother had scarcely settled down when the strange tap, tap, started again. Despite all my efforts, I couldn't work out where this water that left no trace came from, and I must have fallen asleep in the end, for I didn't hear my father come in.

A sudden noise, like that of a dam bursting, woke me with a start. I sat shivering with my eyes wide open. What I saw then froze me with such fear that I feel myself going pale when I think of it again. The window, the one on the wall above my head, seemed to be shaking from a dreadful onslaught. It suddenly gave way and water gushed through the gaping hole. It came and came. In the twinkle of an eye, I felt myself submerged, and the water went up and up in green translucent layers. I thought that I was sitting on the bottom of the sea. The wall, the ceiling, even the wood of my bed had all disappeared. Whichever way I looked, I could only see water, more water; water everywhere! I believed myself to be someone who had drowned but had somehow stayed alive, and you could scarcely know how horrible it felt.

But the most terrible thing about it was this:

When I was looking stupefied at the water piling up, the corpse of a round, pudgy cat with brown ears and tail passed by, almost touching my face; it was stretched out and floating inert, moved about by the waves. Its arms were crossed, its little apart. Orange spots could be seen on it's head and back. I pushed violently backwards. My bedclothes made a great deal of splashing, and I thought they were going to drag me off with the corpse which they were dragging. In made a heart-rending cry for help.

My father leapt to my bed in a single bound. I remember that he had a gun in his hand. He believed I was having a nightmare, and shook me with all his might.

"Wake up, Kirby!"

"I am too much awake," I replied.

My teeth were chattering and all my body was streaming with a cold sweat, just as if I'd really come out of the water. My father spoke harshly:

"Well, what's going on? What's wrong with you? Speak!"

I looked at him silently with suppliant eyes. He softened his voice, patted me on the head, and said:

"Don't be afraid.. Your mother's already told me that you've had strange ideas in your head; tell me what it is; I'll not shout at you."

I threw my arms around him and began sobbing on his chest.

"The sea," I exclaimed.. It was all there in my bed, and there was a drowned cat's body floating on it."

"And what was the drowned cat like?"

"I don't know.. I only saw him from below, and I only noticed one thing, he had orange spots on his head and back like Uncle Nago!"

"Well then, little one, it's a sign that Nago is in good health. Haven't you heard the old saying that one always dreams the opposite of the truth?"

"It wasn't a dream," I murmured.

He didn't seem to understand.

Now go back to sleep. I'll stay by your side. That way you'll feel safe, won't you?"

"Yes father."

After a quarter of an hour, seeing that I no longer moved, he left me, thinking I was sound asleep, and he went back to my mother. I heard her ask him softly:

"What do you think?"

"I think your brother is dead. He's chosen to manifest himself to our child because he was so fond of him. Kirby has just seen the premonition of his death."

"My poor, poor Nago. God has his soul!" Said my mother, all pale.

And I saw her tears falling like pink rain over the floor.

Twelve days later a dispatch arrived from Nintendo, announcing on behalf of the company my uncle sailed for, that a transatlantic ship had come across an empty lifeboat recognised as belonging to the Halberd. As for the ship herself, they knew nothing. She must have struck a reef and gone straight down with all hands.


End file.
